For the pharmacological treatment of the brain stroke, some drugs have been historically used, with little clinical efficiency; among them, Citicoline. In a recent study, published in 2002 (Davalos A, Castillo J., Alvarez-Sabin J., Secades J J., Mercadal J., Lopez S., Cobo E., Warach S., Sherman D., Clark W M., Lozano R., Oral citicoline in acute ischemic stroke: an individual patient data pooling analysis of clinical trials. Stroke 33(12):2850-2857, 2002), it was demonstrated that this drug produced an improvement of 25% in average, three months after its administration to patients with brain stroke, while the patients that received a placebo improved 20% in average. As it can be inferred from these results, this pharmacological treatment is not capable of reducing the brain damage associated with brain stroke, in more than 20-30% in average.
On the other hand, the research and the development of new drugs to prevent the consequences of brain stroke, have produced disappointing results. In 2001, for example, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America, approved the use of 5 drugs against cardiac diseases, and no drug against brain stroke. This leads to the fact that there is no selective drug treatment for this serious illness.
The invention herein has as its objective to demonstrate the use of dapsone as the first efficient treatment against the disabling consequences associated with brain stroke in these patients.
Dapsone is a currently used drug, for the chemotherapy treatment of leprocy and in the prophylaxis against pneumonia by pneumocystis carinii. Considering that leprocy is a less frequent disease, the therapeutic use of dapsone has been limited recently.
Acute brain stroke is the third most common cause of death, and the main cause of disability in the world population. In view of the serious consequences that brain stroke means to the society under the terms of rehabilitation and medical care expenses, a new therapeutical agent, more efficient than the current was searched, synthesizing dapsone in as a new neuroprotective compound.